Until now, there have been various methods for tenderizing meat, such as using a protease (JP-A-7-313108), polyphosphate (JP-A-58-23767), sodium chloride or surfactant.
None of these methods, however, could provide satisfying meat tenderization: protease causes overdecomposition, resulting in too soft meat; polyphosphate not only absorbs water to make meat watery but also may cause possible side-effects since it is a synthetic compound; sodium chloride is not suitable for foods since its larger amount is required to make meat softer which makes meat too salty; and a surfactant cannot tenderize meat sufficiently since it does not permeate into the depth of meat.
On the other hands, phosphates, antibiotics and anti-oxidants have traditionally been used to preserve freshness of fishery products and vegetables.
However, these traditional freshness-preserving methods also had problems. For example, phosphate may make foods watery and allow drippings containing flavorous components to flow out; an antibiotic cannot keep resilience of foods and has inferior antioxidation ability; and an antioxidant cannot keep resilience of foods and may have poor antibiotic ability.
The object of the present invention is to develop an agent which can keep proper moisture, provide better mouth-feeling and preserve freshness of cells or protein-containing materials, without causing any side effect.